Restoration Movement

What was the Restoration Movement? In
short, it was a movement by faithful Christians who
sought to live their faith by the New Testament alone
and not by creeds and interpretations of man. Beyond
that simple explanation, there is much history behind
the movement.

Everything changed when the Johannes
Gutenberg printed the first Bible in 1455. When that
momentous event took place, the masses would finally
be able to read for themselves the word of God and understand his
instructions for themselves. Prior to the printing press,
people had no choice but to rely on Catholic clergymen
to disseminate God's word. With the biblical text
becoming more and more accessible as time went on, some people became
increasingly disenfranchised with Catholic teachings,
most notably Martin Luther. His famous 95 Theses
were complaints against Catholic dogma that he felt
needed to be reformed. Although not a comprehensive list, other men of
importance in the Protestant Reformation were Huldrych
Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox.

As the Protestant Reformation continued in Europe, a
new group of men in America had the bold idea that
instead of trying to reform the Catholic Church, which
resulted in numerous creeds and denominations, a better
idea would be to restore the New Testament church by
using only the teachings of the Bible rather than creeds
based on interpretations of the Bible. This became known
as the Restoration Movement. Early leaders of this
movement were Barton Stone (1772-1844), Thomas Campbell
(1763-1854), and his son Alexander Campbell (1788-1866).

The Restoration Movement actually began as two
separate movements with similar ideals and goals. Barton
Stone's group was in Kentucky at Cane Ridge and Thomas
Campbell's group was in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
In 1832, the two groups merged when they fully realized
they were each trying to accomplish the same
thing--unify Christians who did not agree with carrying
denominational labels and creeds.

The ideals of the movement were simple. They wanted
to be Christians only, not identified with
denominational labels. They wanted to do Bible things in
Bible ways, speak where the Bible speaks, be silent
where the Bible is silent. These ideals were very
attractive to people who felt oppressed and
controlled by the Catholic Church and various
denominations.

Today, the Restoration Movement has grown to include
over 4 million people who meet in non-denomination
churches around the world. Churches that arose out of
the Restoration Movement include the Christian Church,
Churches of Christ, and Disciples of Christ.